Abortion in El Salvador

The cover story of the New York Times Sunday Magazine this week is titled Pro-Life Nation and looks at the criminalization of abortion in El Salvador:

There are other countries in the world that, like El Salvador, completely ban abortion, including Malta, Chile and Colombia. El Salvador, however, has not only a total ban on abortion but also an active law-enforcement apparatus -- the police, investigators, medical spies, forensic vagina inspectors and a special division of the prosecutor's office responsible for Crimes Against Minors and Women, a unit charged with capturing, trying and incarcerating an unusual kind of criminal.

That unusual kind of criminal is the woman who has an abortion. The article includes interviews with women who have had illegal abortions, the doctors who report them to authorities, the investigators who gather evidence of the crime, and the magistrates who decide to prosecute and sometimes send those women to prison. The article also provides some history of the role of the Catholic church and grass roots activists who succeeded in passing laws and constitutional amendments making abortion illegal in all circumstances.

You can also listen to two interviews with Jack Hitt who wrote the New York Times story here and here.

NYT article:"The leadership of the FMLN, afraid that the party would be trounced in the coming elections if they were on the record as opposing the amendment, freed its deputies from their obligation to follow the party's position and urged them to vote with their consciences. When the final vote was taken, the amendment passed overwhelmingly."

Obviously EL VISITADOR has some Spanish reading and understanding issues. I wasn't talking about the bill that passed with 72 votes on favor to none, with 12 abstentions in which the FMLN voted. I was talking about the position of the government to focus mainly en the enforcement of that particular law, which gives extreme punishment to poor women for having abortions. Even though the FMLN voted for that bill, they don't enforce the law. The PNC, which now has an arena militant as director, is the one who "enforces" the law.

The arena government is treating those women as if they were criminals, and at the same time, arena militants and arena government officials are selling weapons to criminals who kill dozens of innocent people on a daily basis - these real criminals go to jail today and get out tomorrow, and that seems to be "all right" with the government of Tony K-Saca. That is hypocrisy, but obviously they don't care because the are making big profits from the weapons black market.

If they were pro-life, they would not let poor children die because of a stupid diarrhea; that is outrageous! That is dead wrong! Children die because of a stupid diarrhea on the 21st century, and what does the government do about it? NOTHING! They "don't have money" to do something about it, because they spent millions of dollars in propaganda during the passed elections, and they keep spending millions to maintain the president's image. All of that is trashy politics in the making - a move by arena to appeal to vulnerable, and misinformed religious people.

"Even though the FMLN voted for that bill, they don't enforce the law."

I'd rather have a government that enforces all laws than a choosy one. If you don't like a law, have it repealed. Selective enforcement is the path to corruption.

Regarding your other points, I largely agree that the State uses its limited resources foolishly. This is why we need to privatize: there will be less ways for the government to squander our money. What shall be first: ANDA, perhaps?

Great. You have conceded that the whole abortion thing is not an Arena complot, since, in your words, "the FMLN voted for that bill."

Next, you complain about the tax squandering problems the country faces. I propose a very specific and demonstrably reasonable solution that has worked out in fields such as power distribution and telephony, and that is successfully used in countries such as Spain.

Then, instead of either proposing an alternative solution, you come out with a generic, feel-good complaint: who's going to pay for the cost increases? What leads you to believe there will be _any_ cost increases? In privatized areas, ES enjoys lower costs than many comparable countries! For instance, gasoline, telephone, home-electricity.

Where are your fresh, workable, alternative ideas? Or are you just all about whining?

Well, I guess that when the conquistadors came and conquered what is now El salvador, they instilled the true values of civilization in her. As an American, I've had quite enough of legalized abortion- government condoned genocide. Were I not still hopeful about America's future, I'd take my one way ticket to El Salvador any day! (Seeing how much more civilized they are, we need more immigrants, to shift the balance of morality in God's favor and destroy Planned Parenthood.)

but with people like you, it seems to be all about denial of the corruption and inability, or unwillingness of this government to come up with real answers to solve the chaotic situation in the country. I don't think you are honestly asking me what leads me to believe there would be cost increases in privatizing. Anything private equals better service and higher prices. Private is better,if you can afford it, but for millions of salvadorans who make a living with earnings from $3 to $8 a day without getting a raise in years, it's unreal - not to mention the unemployed at around 13%, or the workers in the informal sector, which is now about 50% of the country's work force.

In countries with broken economies like in El Salvador, privatizing is a dumb idea. On top of that, as a result of the dollarization, another big mistake, inflation is killing the country's broken economy completely. For instance, things that used to cost 4.50 colones(about $0.50 when the exchange rate was at 8.75 colones for $1 dollar) now cost $1 dollar. In other words, people are paying the equivalent of 8.75 colones for what they used to pay only 4.50 a few years ago. No wonder the president of the Banco Central de Reserva, Rafael Barraza, recognized publicly that the economic "policies" of ARENA have been a failure, given the fact that the country survives mainly thanks to the remittances from salvadorans in the US.

I don't know where you got the information about lower gas prices, but $3.39 a gallon to me is an extremely high price for El Salvador's pitiful economy - that price is even higher than what people pay for gasoline in any US city. The same inflation applies to telephony, electricity, etc.

There are many things a government could do to better the lives of 6 million people, but there is nothing that shows that this ARENA government is, capable, or willing to do so, specially after 16 years of the same thing: corruption, corruption and more corruption. I hope I'm wrong, but I believe the ARENA dictatorship is leading us into another civil war. Like in the 70s, we see repression, electoral fraud, injustice, violence, corruption, extreme poverty in millions of people who desperately need solutions, but instead of giving solutions to the people's needs, the government spends millions of dollars in propaganda to enhance the president's image and in punishing poor women for having abortions. Again, this abortion thing is nothing but trashy politics in the making to appeal to vulnerable uninformed and misinformed religious people to get their vote, and to perpetuate this dictatorship.

I dont completely agree with this imposed law. Human rights is freedom to the peaceful. Imagine a girl that has been forcely molested and raped and as a consequence becomes pregnant? who is the victim? An assult to one's rights is a crime. As an outsider this has nothing to do with religion in this modern times, developed countries have made this shift. On a wider note, how unforgiving if this is a trashy politic ploy to maneuver the vulnerable uninformend and misinformed religios people to win their votes.. as previosly stated.Im only giving an outside point of view.. and,politic kills!